Scraping blade for converting a cutting edge on a loading bucket

ABSTRACT

A loading bucket is described of the type which would be used on a tractor, front-end loader or other such vehicle, having a multiplicity of teeth on the bucket. At least two of the teeth are provided with a replaceable tip portion which houses a projecting member that is adapted to be received within a complementally formed housing secured to a scraping blade. By this arrangement, the scraping blade can be detachably secured to the loading bucket when desired, thereby readily converting the bucket&#39;&#39;s toothed edge to a straight edge, and vice versa.

United States Patent [191 Daviduke Oct. 16, 1973 SCRAPING BLADE FORCONVERTING A CUTTING EDGE ON A LOADING BUCKET [75] Inventor: Peter M.Daviduke, Saskatoon,

Saskatchewan, Canada [73] Assignee: Myers Excavating Ltd., Saskatoon,

Saskatchewan, Canada 221 Filed: Mar. 17, 1972 211 Appl. No.: 235,855

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 4,273, Jan.20, 1970,

abandoned.

[52] U.S. Cl. 37/141 R, 37/142 R [51] int. Cl E02i 9/28 [58] Field ofSearch 37/141, 142

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,702,490 2/1955 Launder37/142 A X 3,160,967 12/1964 Nichols 37/ 141 T 3,469,330 9/1969 Hood eta1. 37/141 R X 3,523,380 8/1970 Bolyard et a1 37/141 R PrimaryExaminer-Edgar S. Burr Attorney-John W. Malley et a1.

[5 7] ABSTRACT A loading bucket is described of the type which would beused on a tractor, frontend loader or other such vehicle, having amultiplicity of teeth on the bucket. At least two of the teeth areprovided with a replaceable tip portion which houses a projecting memberthat is adapted to be received within a complementally formed housingsecured to a scraping blade. By this arrangement, the scraping blade canbe detachably secured to the loading bucket when desired, therebyreadily converting the buckets toothed edge to a straight edge, and viceversa.

5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures SCRAPING BLADE FOR CONVERTING A CUTTING EDGEON A LOADING BUCKET This application is a continuation of Ser. No.4,273, filed .Ian. 20, 1970, now abandoned.

This invention relates generally to a loading bucket of the type that isadapted for use on a tractor, a frontend loader or other such vehicle.More particularly, the invention relates to the convertability of atoothed edge on such a bucket to a straight edge and vice versa by adetachably securable scraping blade that can be removably mounted on aground engaging lip of the loading bucket, where it is needed.

It is well known that the loading bucket normally used on a front-endloader, a bulldozer or the like has numerous teeth provided on theground-engaging lip thereof. Because of the purpose for which such teethhave been designed, cleaning up or scraping the ground with a loadingbucket having teeth on it will leave ridges, hills and valleys on theground instead of a smooth, level surface. Hence, a situation which hascontinuously ben encountered in cleaning up in work areas wherefront-end loaders have been used, is that of wanting to avoid the ridgesor hills and valleys previously mentioned. To clean up and leave asmooth surface that is ready for footings, floors, foundations, pavingor concrete slabs, the machine operator previously had to remove all ofthe teeth from the permanent cutting edge of the bucket. It will berecognized that such a course of action was very time consuming, and adifficult job using perhaps 2 hours of a mechanics time, plus thedown-time of the machine itself. Furthermore, when the teeth werereinstalled on the buckets cutting edge, new bolts were frequentlyrequired because the old ones had invariably been bent and deformed tothe extent that they usually had to be cut off with an acetylene torch.The alternative to that difficult and time-consuming operation was toleave the teeth off entirely, and hence use the bare cutting edge of theground-engaging lip of the bucket. This reduced the efficiency of themachine, however, and also shortened the useful life of the cuttingedge. Undue wear to the entire bucket frequently resulted. Without theteeh, the excavating machine simply was not effective in hardpan, rockor other such hard materials.

It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide an acceptablesolution to many of these problems. The present invention is easy to useand significantly improves the efficiency of excavating equipment withwhich it is being used.

It is another object of this invention to provide an arrangement wherethe toothed cutting edge of a bucket ofa front-end loader, for example,can readily be modified or converted for selected use either in roughexcavating operations, or for cleaning up and leaving a smooth, levelsurface.

It is yet another object of this invention to provide a scraping bladeassembly which can be detachably secured to the cutting edge of aloading bucket on a tractor, front-end loader or like vehicle.

These and other objects and features of this invention will becomeapparent from the following description. In one embodiment, however,there is provided a loading bucket having a cutting edge with amultiplicity of teeth secured to said edge. Selected ones of these teetheach have a replaceable cap secured to the tooth by pin means insertableinto aligned holes that extend through the cap and tooth. The bucketalso includes a scraping blade with a leading edge portion and atrailing edge portion. A plurality of housing members are fixedlysecured to the trailing edge of the scraping blade and corresponding innumber and position to those teeth having a replaceable cap. Each ofthese housing members is operative to closely receive an umcapped toothand has apertures therein for receiving the pin means mentioned above,to thereby removably secure the scraping blade readily to the uncappedteeth on said bucket, thus facilitating easy convertability from atoothed edge to a straight edge, and vice versa.

The slip-on or replaceable scraping blade that is contemplated herein isthe answer to many of the problems mentioned above. Installation of thebalde takes only a few minutes, with the operator merely removing areplaceable tip from a number of the teeth on the loading bucket byknocking out the connecting pins with a punch and hammer.

This will be described in more detail below, having regard to theaccompanying formal drawings in which:

FIG. I is a schematic view showing a loading bucket and scraping bladeaccording to this invention, in assembled form with the toothed edgehaving been converted to a straight edge configuration;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view similar to that of FIG. 1, but showing thescraping blade separated from the bucket;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view taken in perspective and showing a preferredarrangement for detachably connecting the scraping blade, which is shownin part, to one of the teeth on the loading bucket; and

FIG. 3A is a partial perspective view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating amodified arrangement; and

FIG. 4 is an elevation view taken in section along the line 44 of FIG.1.

Turning now to the drawings, a conventional loading bucket is shownoverall at 10. This loading bucket 10 is of the type which could be usedon a tractor, a frontend loader, a bulldozer or other such excavatingvehicle. Moreover, the loading bucket 10 has a cutting edge 12 to whicha multiplicity of teeth 14 are secured. These teeth 14 are normallyconnected to the loading bucket 10 by means of bolts, or other suchfastening means in a manner which will enable them to be replaced whennecessary. Alternatively, the teeth 14 could be welded to the cuttingedge of the loading bucket 10, however, it will be recognized that suchan arrangement would be less popular because of the increased difficultyin repairing or replacing any broken or damaged teeth.

As indicated in FIG. 2, a number, and preferably at least two, of theteeth 14 have a removable tip (not shown) which encloses a connectinglug 16 that protrudes from a base portion 18 of the tooth 14. Thisconnecting lug 16 is normally provided with an aperture 20 and isadapted to be closely received within a housing member 22 which iswelded, bolted, riveted or otherwise fixedly secured to a scraping blade24. This housing member 22 in each instance is also provided with anaperture 26 which, in an assembled relation of the scraping blade 24 andbucket 10, is in alignment with the aperture 20 on the base portion ofthe teeth 14. Pin means such as a knock-out pin shown at 28 in FIG. 4can then be punched into these apertures 20 and 26 in order to lock thescraping blade 24 to the loading bucket 10. It will be apparent thatapertures 20 and 26 can be disposed vertically, horizontally, or at someposition therebetween. In FIG. 3A the apertures are shown at and 26 asbeing horizontal, If generally vertically dispoesed, the aperture 26will extend through the blade 24, as seen in FIG. 4. Installation of thescraping blade 24 takes only a few minutes. The machine operator merelyremoves the replaceable tip portions from the appropriate ones of theteeth 14, by punching out the knock-out pins 28 with a punch and hammer.The scraping blade 24 is laid on the ground in front of the machine, andthe operator may then move the machine forward and manipulate the bucketcontrols so that the connecting lug l6 enters the housing 22 on thescraping blade 24. The pins 28 (or new ones, if necessary) are thentapped back into place, and the scraping blade 24 is made secure. Sincethe teeth 14 are now blanked off and the cutting edge of the scrapingblade 24 has been converted to a configuration that is relatively flatand smooth, it is ready to be used for producing a clean, smooth job onany grade or surface where material is to be scraped loose and scoopedinto the bucket 10.

When the particular job is completed, the scraping blade 24 can bequickly and easily removed, the teeth cap portions replaced and themachine again made ready i.e., converted back for heavy and harddigging.

In removing ice and snow, a straight edge as provided by this scrapingblade 24 having a flat, smooth cutting edge has been found to beessential if a good job is to be done and a high output maintained.Parking lots, paved roads, driveways, et cetera can be scraped cleandown to bare pavement with a minimum of effort with the snow and icebeing scooped directly over the blade 24 and teeth 14 into the bucket10, as will be evident from FIG. 1. However, should the operatorencounter ice or hard-packed snow, it is a relatively simple matter todrop off the scraping blade 24 and use the regular bucket 10 with teeth14 to break up the tough material. The scraping blade 24 can then be putback on and the machine operated at high speed loading again.

When the cutting edge of a standard bucket such as that indicated at 12wears dull and the machine has to be downed" for hours while the bucketis being welded and worn spots built up, in order to repair andhard-surface such cutting edge, much time and money can be lost. Thiscan now be avoided simply by having a spare or extra scraping blade onhand and kept in good condition by effecting repairs to it during sparetime. Even if an extra blade is not available in stock, it is possibleto effect repairs and touching up on the scraping blade in use, duringhours when the machine is being employed on bulk excavating or loading,i.e., using the bucket's own conventional cutting edge 12 with teeth 14.

It is particularly to be noted that the scraping blade I4 is easilytransported, and can be carried on the particular excavating machinefrom job to job, or hauled about in a small truck. It is easily handledby two men, or in a pinch, one man could carry out the entire operationof installing and removing a scraping blade by utilizing the hoistingmechanism frequently found on the machine on which it is being used.

On many occasions, the presence ofa scraping blade as described hereinon a project eliminates the need for a motor grader. On road, sidewalkand parking lot jobs it is possible to finish up the rough grade, orsub-base courses to tolerances good enough to receive a base gravelcourse. In some cases, in virgin soil, it is possible for a goodoperator to cut the clay and topsoil out accurately to the desired gradeon the first pass, and if the present scraping blade is used, no furthergrading operations would be required.

The present invention therefore affords increased efficiency andversitility to a loading bucket of the type usually found on excavatingand other types of construction equipment. Certain modifications to thespecific embodiment previously described will be apparent to those inthis art. It is comprehended that all such modifications are intended,within the spirit of this invention, to be encompassed within the claimsbelow.

I claim:

1. In a loading bucket having a ground-engaging edge provided with amultiplicity of horizontally-spaced apart cutting teeth to cut into ahard surface and to enable a load to be picked up, each of a pluralityof said teeth including a base portion fixed to the bucket and aprotruding lug and a replaceable cap secured over the lug by pin meansremovably received in aligned housing member having aligned openings insaid cap and lug, the improvement comprising: means for selectivelyconverting said ground-engaging edge of said bucket to a straight edgedconfiguration over which material passes into said bucket and forreturning said edge to its toothed configuration, said means including astraight-edged scraping blade having a straight leading edge and atrailing edge portion and a plurality of housing members fixed to theupwardly facing surface of said trailing edge portion, each of saidhousing members corresponding in position to one of said plurality ofteeth and being configured to closely receive the lug of one of saidteeth whereby said scraping blade is supported by said teeth when thelugs are received in the housing members, and each housing member havingaligned openings therein to receive said pin means to thereby removablysecure said scraping blade to said teeth, the ground-engaging surface ofsaid scraping blade being substantially smooth and flat and the arrangement of said blade when supported by said teeth being such thatsaid blade will cut away material while leaving a smooth, level surfaceand will scoop the cutaway material directly over the blade andunimpeded into the bucket.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein each said housing member has an openend and a closed end, the open end defining a lug-receiving opening.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said pin means includes a removablepin which is insertable in the holes in each housing member and itsrespective lug, the pin being oriented in use generally horizontally andparallel to the ground-engaging edge of the bucket.

4. A loading bucket for excavating equipment comprising: aground-engaging edge defining one side of an opening for receivingmaterial being loaded into the bucket; a multiplicity of teeth fixedlysecured to said edge, each of a plurality of said teeth including aprojecting lug adapted to receive a replaceable cap configured to bematingly coupled to the lug, said lug having a hole therein forreceiving a pin; a removable scraping blade for converting saidground-engaging edge from a toothed configuration to a straight-edgeconfiguration, each of which configurations allows unimpeded passage ofmaterial over said edge into the bucket while cutting and scraping upthe material, said scraping blade having a straight leading edge and atrailing edge portion and a plurality of open-ended housing members saidblade to said bucket, the ground-engaging surface of said blade beingsubstantially smooth and flat and the arrangement of said blade beingsuch that said blade will cut away material while leaving a smooth levelsurface and will scoop the cut-away material directly over the blade andinto the bucket.

5. Apparatus as in claim 4 wherein the knock-out pins and the alignedholes in said lugs and housing members are disposed horizontally.

1. In a loading bucket having a ground-engaging edge provided with amultiplicity of horizontally-spaced apart cutting teeth to cut into ahard surface and to enable a load to be picked up, each of a pluralityof said teeth including a base portion fixed to the bucket and aprotruding lug and a replaceable cap secured over the lug by pin meansremovably received in aligned holes in said cap and lug, the improvementcomprising: means for selectively converting said ground-engaging edgeof said bucket to a straight edged configuration over which materialpasses into said bucket and for returning said edge to its toothedconfiguration, said means including a straight-edged scraping bladehaving a straight leading edge and a trailing edge portion and aplurality of housing members fixed to the upwardly facing surface ofsaid trailing edge portion, each of said housing members correspondingin position to one of said plurality of teeth and being configured toclosely receive the lug of one of said teeth whereby said scraping bladeis supported by said teeth when the lugs are received in the housingmembers, and each housing member having aligned openings therein toreceive said pin means to thereby removably secure said scraping bladeto said teeth, the ground-engaging surface of said scraping blade beingsubstantially smooth and flat and the arrangement of said blade whensupported by said teeth being such that said blade will cut awaymaterial while leaving a smooth, level surface and will scoop thecut-away material directly over the blade and unimpeded into the bucket.2. Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein each said housing member has an openend and a closed end, the open end defining a lug-receiving opening. 3.Apparatus as in claim 1 wherein said pin means includes a removable pinwhich is insertable in the holes in each housing member and itsrespective lug, the pin being oriented in use generally horizontally andparallel to the ground-engaging edge of the bucket.
 4. A loading bucketfor excavating equipment comprising: a ground-engaging edge defining oneside of an opening for receiving material being loaded into the bucket;a multiplicity of teeth fixedly secured to said edge, each of aplurality of said teeth including a projecting lug adapted to receive areplaceable cap configured to be matingly coupled to the lug, said lughaving a hole therein for receiving a pin; a removable scraping bladefor converting said ground-engaging edge from a toothed configuration toa straight-edged configuration, each of which configurations allowsunimpeded passage of material over said edge into the bucket whilecutting and scraping up the material, said scraping blade having astraight leading edge and a trailing edge portion and a plurality ofopen-ended housing members spaced apart along the length of said bladeand fixed to the upwardly facing surface of said trailing edge portionwith their openings facing the bucket, each of said housing memberscorresponding in position to one of said plurality of teeth and beingconfigured to closely receive the lug of one of said uncapped teethwhereby said blade is supported by said teeth, each housing memberhaving a hole aligned with the hole in its respective lug; a knock-outpin removably inserted through the aligned holes to thereby removablysecure said blade to said bucket, the ground-engaging surface of saidblade being substantially smooth and flat and the arrangement of saidblade being such that said blade will cut away material while leaving asmooth level surface and will scoop the cut-away material directly overthe blade and into the bucket.
 5. Apparatus as in claim 4 wherein theknock-out pins and the aligned holes in said lugs and housing membersare disposed horizontally.